The right location for collaboration

The right location for collaboration
The right location for collaboration

Joaquín Rodríguez Grau, Aerópolis' manager, Aerospace Technological Park of Andalucía looks at the value of industrial concentration, collaboration and knowledge around the aerospace manufacturing industry.

Joaquín Rodríguez Grau, Aerópolis' manager, Aerospace Technological Park of Andalucía looks at the value of industrial concentration, collaboration and knowledge around the aerospace manufacturing industry.
Aerospace has become one of the key strategic sectors within the economy in Andalucía and one of the best examples of technological and industrial development that our community has experienced in the last decade.

Among other factors, this situation has been made possible thanks to the arrival of great international projects, such as the Airbus A400M military aircraft and the public administration's commitment, notably the Regional Government, in supporting the traditional service industry, which has substantially grown in the last few years in its main indicators: turnover, employment, R&D, productivity, diversification of customers and products, industrialisation and especially its competitiveness in the global market. This has enabled the Andalusian aerospace sector to position itself as the third aerospace cluster in Europe, behind Toulouse and Hamburg to show the most promising, possibilities for growth within the international aerospace industry.

This increase of competitiveness within companies and professionals, comprising the Andalusian aerospace network, is one of the essential aspects that made us gain this leading position also supported by the creation of collaborative environments and highly specialised, linked knowledge.

According to a number of researches, including Harvard Business School's Michael Porter's initial studies about cluster theory, it is shown that the geographic concentration of companies and knowledge at these kinds of technological sites encourages among them collaboration, innovation and development in added value areas, as well as the opportunity to do business and to grow both nationally and internationally too. In short, the location in collaborative environments known as clusters, with a structured value chain and with a high density of technological companies focused on the knowledge of a specific industry, nourishes the growth within each of the members of that business community.

This is the case of Aerópolis, the Technological Aerospace Park of Andalucía; Europe's only site exclusively devoted to companies within the aerospace industry and currently home to over 75 companies - among them, Airbus Defence & Space - concentrated within a radius of one kilometre. Aerópolis serves as a clear example of a true cluster involving value chain, knowledge and technology around the aerospace industry, as well as the importance of setting an appropriated environment of collaboration and knowledge to let the productive network grow in Andalucía, in Spain and in Europe.

The increase in the number of companies being established in Aerópolis year after year, the increase of its turnover - some €700 million, over 4,000 professionals and the growing standards of qualification and investment in R&D bear testament to it. Other intangible and equally important values should be considered, such as the increase of business cooperation and the establishment of synergies among the Technological-Scientific Park's companies and the boost of innovation and knowledge thanks to the participation in remarkable aerospace forums and seminars, as well as in other meetings with international companies and entities who visit us interested in getting to know the Aerópolis model and its growing evolution.

From my point of view, this is the road we have to follow, not only in the aerospace industry, but in industry in general on a regular basis. Catering for the most specialised and profitable sectors which have a historic background of quality and knowledge (over one hundred years in the case of Andalusian aerospace), and structuring them in true clusters where business, technology and knowledge concentration generates collaborative environments in which productivity rises and equally, the capacity to compete for the international league rises too.

www.aeropolis.es

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